J.I. Kleinberg

The Verb

They piled into the back seat,
the two of them with all their
testosterone, we in the front
more like parents, with all that
history, that family closeness

that I wasn’t really part of,
and stories of this one and that,
the sheriff and the windmill,
the bar and the re-interment,
all those stories of the trading post

and who had money and whose
money would go where sooner
or later. And I can’t remember
who asked the question or what
it was about, but when he said

Jew as a verb my body went prickly,
my arms and legs, my ears ringing,
and I said nothing. Did not know
how to say what I needed to say,
what I had to say, what they had

to understand, to know, what had
to change. I said nothing, afraid
of what might become of me, of us,
if I spoke, and in everything I do
I see that silent version of myself,

tongue-tied, failure, disappointment.
And we just kept driving until we got
wherever we were going, the four
of us, the three plus one of us,
I alone, silent.

J.I. Kleinberg is the author of The Word for Standing Alone in a Field (Bottlecap, 2023) and Sleeping Lessons (Milk & Cake, 2025) as well as four collections of visual poems, including All of We (Anhinga Press, 2026). She lives in Bellingham, Washington, USA, and on Instagram @jikleinberg. We at AMBIDEXTROUS BLOODHOUND are grateful to Judy, who is one of our faithful regulars.